Liquidation Station offers wonderful assortment

Brian Creten, owner of Liquidation Station, shows off the deal he has on chips in his store. The store has everything from chips to exercise equipment and bikes, to grills and sheet sets and patio furniture(Photo: Mary Hance / The Tennessean)

The two things that I like best about liquidation stores are that they have good prices, and that you never know what you might find.

The first time I visited Liquidation Station in the Rivergate area, I was struck by the wonderful randomness of the inventory. I mean you could purchase sheet sets and toilets, as well as outdoor furniture and fishing poles and packs of Goldfish (the crackers, not the ones you fish for). And drums!

There was lots of exercise equipment, and there were bicycles of all sizes and models for $1, plus electric fireplaces and interesting fire pits.

And when I called to make plans for a second visit, owner Brian Creten was excited about a pick up he was getting ready to make of several hundred new barbecue grills that he and his staff would assemble and sell at a discount.

So I made a return trip to see for myself and saw even more good stuff.

One way that I know for certain that a store is worth its salt is when customers such as Amy Lafayette get involved in my reporting —Creten was showing me around his store and hitting the highlights when Amy stepped in and pleaded with me, "Ms. Cheap, please don't write about this place until after I get my patio furniture. Then you can tell everybody about it."

Ha, ha. I knew Liquidation Station had to be good.

Yes, patio furniture, grills, potato chips, bicycles, outdoor fire pits and exercise equipment were the mainstays of the inventory that day. And the store has just gotten in a big supply of duct tape and another shipment of the Homecrest 1800 Series six-piece king and queen sheet sets (they come in 12 colors) that are priced at $24.99.

Creten got into this liquidation business about three years ago when he tested the water with a purchase of a $350 pallet of liquidated inventory that he promptly sold on eBay and Craigslist.

"I was excited about the opportunity to buy stuff at great prices and turn it into a profit. That first $350 I was able to double my money, and then every penny I made I invested back in the business," he said.

Creten's enthusiasm for the liquidation business grew, and he has been buying and selling ever since, first from his garage and now from his Liquidation Station store that he and his dad, Ken Creten, opened two years ago off Myatt Drive, about a mile and a half from RiverGate Mall.

They have expanded three times, from the original 2,400 square feet to 8,000 square feet of space. They say they could use more space if they had it.

These days they receive one or two trucks a week (there is no pattern to the deliveries) with sight-unseen loads from Amazon, Walmart.com, Home Depot, Kmart and Sears.

"I just got 14 pallets of wine refrigerators and mattresses and pretzels," Brian Creten said, noting that he fills in with more targeted buys of specific merchandise such as the Char-Broil grills that he picked up in Georgia and bicycles that he buys through Walmart. He also maintains a strong inventory of exercise equipment and is a ddrum dealer, too.

With true liquidation purchases, Creten's prices are usually half off the suggested retail, but with some special buys such as bikes and those grills, his price might be 15-20 percent off retail.

"We sell a lot of bikes," he said. "We have 10-inch bikes all the way up to 26-inch beach cruisers, and we are getting some specialty bikes in, too."

A few examples of his prices: A three-burner Char-Broil grill that had a suggested retail price of $449 is $359 at his store, and it is assembled and ready to throw a steak on the night you take it home.

"When people buy a grill they want to cook on it that night," Creten said, noting that his staff can easily assemble the grills to make them more sellable.

Another example is a 44-inch basketball goal that retailed for $109 but is priced at $69 in his store.

"We get tons of exercise equipment; it has been our bread and butter. I think we sold 300 treadmills last year," Creten said, citing an example of a $1,450 Proform treadmill that he has pried at $1,029.

"I cherry pick for my store. I am small enough that I can't afford to buy something that I can't sell," he said.

Creten says his store maintains an active presence on Facebook, where it can showcase items that are coming in and tell "friends" about special sales and promotions. He is also developing a customer email list that you should get on if you go shopping.

Liquidation Station is at 1236 Northgate Business Parkway, just off Myatt Drive, about a mile and a half from RiverGate Mall. Hours are 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday. For details call 615-300-8413 or see Liquidation Station on Facebook.

•Head Springs Depot at 547 Mt. Hope St. in Franklin, off Hillsboro Road, near the Alexander car dealership. This store has almost doubled in size since I wrote about it. Details: Facebook.com/headspringsdepot , call 615-671-4021 or go to headspringsdepot.com.

•Liquidation Station is at 1236 Northgate Business Parkway, just off Myatt Drive, about a mile and a half from RiverGate Mall. Details: Facebook.com/liquidationstation or call 615-300-8413.